Fidelity Investments executives and Gov. John Hickenlooper officially christened the company’s new regional office in the Denver Tech Center Thursday, noting that the site has the capacity to employ as many as 500 people.

The Boston-based financial services firm said it has been “hiring aggressively” since it first opened the site in January, and now employs about 200 people in a building next door to Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in Greenwood Village.

Sherri Kroonenberg, senior vice president and general manager of the new customer contact center, told me the company will have more than 250 employees hired by the end of this year.

“And then we’ll look at the growth based on Fidelity’s overall growth and we will adjust accordingly,” Kroonenberg said. “We absolutely see Denver as an area that will continue to grow. In the three floors we occupy, we have room for over 500 people, so certainly Denver is earmarked for growth.”

Fidelity is leasing 100,000 square feet at 6501 S. Fiddler’s Green Circle, a building owned and managed by the John Madden Co.

“Fidelity looked at their geographic diversification strategy ... and one of the pieces that we wanted to see was a location in the mountain West,” Kroonenberg said. “They looked at multiple areas, but when they looked at Denver, one of the things that came to mind was, ‘How strong is the labor market here?’ And it’s very strong from a financial services perspective.”

She also credited Denver’s “vibrant and welcoming business climate” as a reason Fidelity decided to expand here.

The center employs six levels of staff, who will do everything from initial customer contact to more complex financial advice, she said.

Kathleen Murphy, president of personal investment for Fidelity in Boston, was in Denver this morning to celebrate the center. She joked that Fidelity was so committed to the city that they gave the Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker from the New England Patriots.

“Denver will play a key role in Fidelity’s growth strategy going forward, as we continue to help millions of customers achieve their investing goals,” Murphy said.

Fidelity is one of the world’s largest financial services companies, with $4.3 trillion assets under administration and $1.8 trillion in managed assets, as of July 31.

Heather Draper covers banking, finance, law and sports business for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "Finance Etc." blog. Phone: 303-803-9230.

Related links:

Industries:

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.